


Wider

by kaguneko (alittlecoco)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dentist AU, Fluff, M/M, No Plot/Plotless, You'll get cavities reading this, inappropriate dentist/patient interactions..., this is so plotless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-30 19:44:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10883658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alittlecoco/pseuds/kaguneko
Summary: Levi goes to the dentist...





	Wider

**Author's Note:**

> I literally just wanted to write a ficlet to this [tweet](https://kaguneko.tumblr.com/post/160528865246) because it cracks me the heck up. That's it.

 

Levi hated the dentist’s.

  
He hated doctor’s appointments with the same ferocity, for that matter. It wasn’t a phobia, per say; he wasn’t afraid of needles or pain. It was that strange hands prodding at his body made his skin crawl and the overly clean scent of latex and disinfectant reminded him of the germs squirming, unseen, across the counters. Foreign hands, foreign germs, all over his body, leaving marks he couldn’t see and had to scrub away blindly.

  
He shuddered in the waiting room, standing by the wall rather than sitting in one of the plastic chairs. He crossed his arms, shifting his weight onto one leg for relief. He’d been waiting for forty minutes.

  
Sticky, crying kids smeared their snots on the chairs before getting dragged through the doors by their parents and a chirpy dental assistant. Disgusting.

  
“Mr. Ackerman?”

  
Levi’s heart dropped to his stomach and he straightened, moved towards the blandly smiling assistant by the door, trying to ignore the way the hair at the back of his neck stood on end.

  
The assistant smiled, patient, and turned with a “Right this way, sir,” that sounded like she'd uttered it a hundred times today alone and it had lost all meaning. Levi trailed behind her, ignoring the scent of fluoride and lysol.

  
“I apologize for the wait,” the assistant was saying. Levi grunted, eyes flickering about the hallway with more attention than he paid to her voice. The long, carpeted halls of dental practices always made Levi feel like he’d fallen into another reality, one thick with muffled anxiety. “Dr. Smith is very popular, you see…” She trailed off and paused in front of an open door. “Go ahead and sit in the examination chair,” she said. “Dr. Smith will be with you shortly.” She left him with a polite nod and closed the door behind her with a soft click.

  
Levi very much doubted Smith would be along quickly, so he moved slowly, resigned to take a ginger seat on the vinyl examination chair, cringing away from the surface even as he leaned against it, every line of his body tense in a careful balance so he didn't touch more of the reclined surface than he had to. He trailed his eyes over the equipment in the room and sighed, hoping it would be a brief appointment. He could already feel someone else’s fingers inside his mouth and it made him grit his teeth and grimace, running his tongue along his gums to rid himself of the illusion. It would take hours to get that sensation out of his mouth. A shudder crawled across his chest.

  
Someone shouted outside the room, voice high-strung and grating, and Levi flinched, turned his eyes to the ceiling and said a silent, futile pray that this wasn’t Dr. Smith.

  
The door clicked open and the shout burst through the opening into the room. Levi jerked his head towards the door and got an eyeful of frizzy hair and glasses before broad shoulders blocked his view. The owner of the shoulders paused at the threshold and offered Levi a gentle, soothing smile that made Levi scowl.

  
“Levi Ackerman?”

  
“Yeah,” Levi grunted, raking suspicious eyes over the dentist, gaze catching on his immaculate blond hair, blindingly white teeth, and brilliant blue eyes. On the crisp white lab coat and clean blue dress-shirt. _Too bright_ , Levi thought, irritated. It made his eyes hurt. “Dr. Smith?” he mimicked.

  
“Indeed,” Dr. Smith said, lips pulling the slightest bit wider, smile turning from soothing to something else for the briefest moment. Then he entered the room, fluid and calm, and waved in his assistant, a little blond with a round, androgynous face who closed the door behind them. Levi narrowed his eyes and looked between the two of them. At least it wasn’t the one with glasses and the piercing voice.

  
The little assistant started to get the equipment ready, quiet and serious, while Dr. Smith sat on a stool, rolling closer to where Levi sat uneasily in the examination chair. Levi caught a glimpse of outlandish socks when the dentist’s slacks rucked up, pale pink with navy polk-a-dots unless Levi was hallucinating, before the dentist was far too close, fixing him with a sharp gaze that made Levi’s hair stand on end as much as the tacky vinyl under his thighs did.

  
“No need to be nervous,” Dr. Smith said gently, taking a clipboard from his assistant and glancing at it.

  
“I’m not nervous,” Levi snarled.

  
Dr. Smith smiled indulgently. “Okay.”

  
Levi repressed another snarl, inhaling heavy through his nose and looking up at the ceiling rather than the dentist’s curling mouth. He folded his hands across his stomach, pressing into his abdomen hard, fingers digging against his own hipbones to relieve some of the tension crackling through his limbs.

  
“You’re just here for a yearly, yes?” Smith checked off boxes on the paper. Levi could see him out of the corner of his eye looking from the clip-board to Levi with quiet attentiveness. The scratch of his pen was bizarrely relaxing. Levi felt his back muscles loosen slightly, twitching from the prolonged strain. He resolutely ignored the assistant and the quiet clinking of metal the instruments made.

  
“Yeah,” Levi grunted, still staring at the ceiling.

  
“Okay, great. That’s fine.” The pen scratching halted. “How many times a day do you brush your teeth?”

  
“Two, sometimes three.” Levi shrugged.

  
“Floss?”

  
“Of course.”

  
“Any sensitivity or pain? Bleeding of the gums?”

  
Levi glanced over at the dentist and regretted it. The man was watching him with soft eyes and his mouth curving into what seemed like an unconscious smile.  “Nope.” Levi could feel his lips pulling back on a growl again so he snapped his mouth shut, pressing his lips together.

  
Smith’s mouth broke into a grin as Levi thinned his into an irritated line. “Great, you should be easy.”

  
Levi frowned at him; the man didn’t seem at all bothered by his standoffishness. If anything, he seemed amused by it. His last dentist had constantly told him to _smile_ , to loosen up, to make conversation. Levi shrugged and looked away. Whatever. He supposed the guy was popular for a reason.

  
The assistant carried over a tray of instruments, making Levi startle. He’d forgotten the kid was there. “Sorry, Mr. Ackerman,” the assistant murmured, noticing his jump.

  
Levi found himself muttering, “’s fine,” and flushing slightly, looking down at his beat-up boots.

  
“Alright, Levi, I’m going to put the bib on,” Smith said, clipping the holder to one side of a bib.

 

Levi swallowed and nodded, tipping his head forward so the dentist could lean forward and pass the rubber holder behind his neck, warm fingers brushing the top of his spine. Levi shivered violently. “Sorry,” the dentist murmured. And then Levi was clipped in place, staring up at Smith with wide eyes and a frown so intense it made his forehead ache. Understanding seemed to flicker through Smith’s eyes, making them flare brighter for a moment, and he nodded to Levi. “I’ll try to make this as brief as possible,” he said and dropped his gaze to ready the tools. His assistant pulled up a chair on the other side of the examination chair, lowering Levi and reclining him further, flicking on the harsh examination light.

  
It was too many people, too close, and Levi felt trapped. He looked up at the ceiling and took a breath, aware his toes were curling in his boots and his legs pressed hard against the vinyl. It smelled like acrylic and fluoride and Levi wanted to wrinkle his nose, certain he was sucking tooth dust into his lungs with every breath, wanted to cringe away from the chair even as he tried to press himself flat against it to escape the people looming over him. There was the snapping of latex gloves and then a throat clearing, jarring Levi out of his head.

  
“Alright.” Smith’s voice was a low purr. “Armin, I’ll let you know when I need you.” The kid—Armin, Levi supposed—hummed softly and Smith turned his attention to Levi. “Ready to open your mouth, Levi?”

  
He was being too gentle, and it made it worse. Levi let his gaze swing over onto the dentist, face flushing with humiliation. Smith’s mouth was hidden behind a mask now, and Levi just had his eyes, too sharp, to read. As he stared, Smith’s eyes crinkled at the corners, like he was smiling, and Levi nodded.

  
He opened his mouth obediently when Smith pressed at his chin with gloved fingers. The dentist’s fingers were warm enough to feel through the latex, Levi noticed faintly as he fixed his stare on the ceiling, unable to look at the man about to reach into his mouth. The inside of his mouth seemed an outrageously intimate place for a stranger to be prodding their fingers. Levi tried to repress a grimace, feeling his nose wrinkle with discomfort.

  
“Just a bit wider,” Smith murmured. Levi ignored the assistant, who was blessedly silent, and let his jaw drop wider. It cost him a remarkable effort. “Good,” Smith said quietly. “Thank you.”

  
Levi shuddered, jaw tensing, heels digging into the examination chair. Smith made a low noise and smoothed his thumb along Levi’s jaw. Levi’s eyes swung, wide, to meet Smith’s. The dentist stared back, fingers gently pressing against Levi’s jaw, little mirror in his other raised hand. “My hands are clean,” he said, tilting his head. “Even under the gloves.”

  
Levi blinked in surprise and let his jaw loosen, drop open into Smith’s palm. The dentist’s eyes tightened a bit, like he was smiling again, and Levi huffed a sigh, rolling his eyes back up to the ceiling, letting the dentist lean over him and press the cold metal instrument into his mouth.

  
“Good,” the dentist murmured again, and Levi repressed a shudder against the way the sound of it crawled up his spine, jarringly contrasted with the unpleasant feel of the metal instrument clicking against his teeth. Smith’s thumb smoothed along his jaw again, on the opposite side from where the assistant sat. Levi realized the assistant couldn't see the movement. It made him feel better that the kid couldn’t see that Smith was _soothing_ him like a fucking child.

  
“Your teeth look great,” Smith said, pressing his thumb in a slow slide along Levi’s jaw. “Good job.”

  
Levi felt his muscles relaxing in infinitesimal twitches and he finally remembered to breathe, accidentally huffing a sigh against Smith’s palm. Smith rewarded him with another slide of his thumb and then he was pulling back, taking the mirror out of Levi’s mouth and releasing his grip, leaving behind an echo of his warmth that was so clear it was like his fingers were still rubbing along Levi's jaw in little strokes. Levi shuddered again, visibly this time, and clicked his jaw shut.

  
“How are you doing?” Smith asked, gesturing for Armin to get the water and suction ready.

  
“Fine,” Levi said, rolling his jaw and pressing his lips in a firm line. He could still feel the foreign metal in his mouth, but it wasn’t as unpleasant as it had been in the past. He was more fixated on the memory of Smith’s touch on his skin, gentle and steady.

  
Smith eyed him and made a show of changing his gloves again. Levi narrowed his eyes and Smith… winked. Levi blinked, felt his expression fall open in surprise, and then Smith was turning away to speak with Armin about how they were going to proceed.

  
Too soon, Smith was bending over Levi again, gently asking permission to press Levi’s jaw open and Levi let him, feeling the frown ache at his brows while his legs pressed hard against the examination chair in a tense counter-point to the way he forced his jaw to relax.

  
Smith hummed. “Good,” he said, and this time his voice was a shade too warm. Levi shivered, unable to help himself, and flicked his gaze from the ugly drop ceiling to the dentist’s face. His eyes were bright above the mask, amused. Levi narrowed his eyes at him, mustering as much indignation as he could with his mouth hanging wide. It just made Smith’s eyes sparkle brighter. Levi though, a bit wildly, that the dentist was _teasing_ him. Fuck Dr. Smith and his pretty white teeth and far too blue eyes.

  
“I’m going to scrape your teeth and clean them with fluoride,” he said. “You know the drill.” His eyes crinkled and Levi wondered if he’d just tried to make a bad pun. Levi huffed and rolled his eyes. At his reaction, Smith burst into a moment of rich laughter, there and gone so fast it left Levi reeling.

  
While the dentist scraped at his teeth, buzzed at his enamel with the fluoride treatment, Levi winced and wrinkled his nose, focused on the pulse in the man’s neck as he scrambled for something to take his mind off the sensation. It was certainly more interesting to look at than the ceiling and he still didn’t want to look at the shy assistant; it was bad enough that the dentist could see him squirming with discomfort. Smith’s throat bobbed as he swallowed, pulse continuing to beat steady like his hands. He smelled nice, Levi realized, surprised that he could smell the dentist, ever so faintly over the sterile scent of the room, something rich and warm that flickered at the edge of Levi’s consciousness. Levi took a deep breath of it, then another.

  
Smith paused at the noise of his sharp inhales. “You good?” He still held Levi’s mouth open with a thumb at his chin.

  
Levi looked up to meet his eyes reflexively. The dentist’s brows quirked up on concern. Levi widened his eyes and nodded as best he could against the firm grip, eyes flickering down to watch Smith’s throat bob on a swallow.

  
“Here you go, Dr. Smith.” A light voice cut in, clear and piping, and Smith blinked, seemingly confused for a moment before he turned to his assistant.

  
“Thank you, Armin,” he said, taking the water pick from the kid. “Keep your tongue clear,” he told Levi, but his thumb slipped against the edge of Levi’s bottom teeth and his eyes were bright with amusement, and Levi wanted to flick his tongue against the thumb prodding at his mouth just to see those eyes widen in surprise. Smith rinsed his mouth, running a finger across Levi's gums under his upper lip and then pressed his lower lip out of the way. Levi watched his pulse flutter. He had a nice neck, Levi thought rather faintly, a bit lost at the way the dentist manipulated his mouth and the fact that Levi was _letting_ him.  His scalp tingled under the attention.

  
“Suction,” Smith said, voice deep and clear as he spoke over the buzz of the instruments.

  
And Levi wasn’t even thinking as he obeyed, as he closed his lips, curled his tongue around the pad of Smith’s finger, and sucked lightly, eyes slipping shut. Smith’s finger felt large in his mouth, and Levi’s attention narrowed to that one point in existence. Funny how things inside his mouth always seemed so much larger than they were, like they were the entire universe. 

  
There was a sharp intake of breath and Levi let his teeth scrape against the latex… awkward with the water in his mouth… against the _latex_ … Oh _god_. Smith coughed lightly and Levi’s eyes flew open, embarrassed shock flooding his brain so quickly he had to blink to clear his vision.

  
“Oh fuck,” Levi garbled, jerking back to let Smith’s finger fall out of his mouth along with a dribble of water and fluoride that splashed onto the bib. His face flamed until he could feel it radiating, broadcasting his embarrassment like a fucking screeching kettle boiling over, and he was certain he was going to die of mortification as his hands flew to his mouth, crashing into Smith’s where the dentist was reaching towards the dribble on Levi’s chin with a wipe and wide eyes.

 

Levi snatched the wipe from the dentist and scrubbed at his face, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on his shoes. There was a scuff on the right boot that drove him crazy, scarred into the leather too deep to get rid of with leather polish and, holy fuck, he was melting into the chair. He was going to slip onto the floor in a melted puddle of fluoride and humiliation.

  
The assistant had apparently decided the solution was to whirl his stool around so that he faced the wall, back stick-straight, neck flushed a remarkable shade of red. Levi had no idea what expression the dentist was making because he was never going to look at his absurdly handsome face again. What a shame. He sure hadn’t been a hardship to look at. Levi didn’t move a muscle. A trickle of sweat dripped down his spine. Nice, he was actually melting.

  
Smith cleared his throat. “Uh, I meant I’d be doing the suctioning.” His voice was rich with laughter, deep and not at all angry, and something hysterical bubbled in Levi’s chest. “Not that…not that you didn’t do a fine job, Levi.” Smith’s voice was shaking now and so was Levi’s chest.

  
Levi opened his mouth to snap and something horrific hiccuped out of his mouth. He realized with surprise that it was a _laugh_. Levi covered his eyes with a hand and shuddered out another snort. “Not another fucking word, Smith.”

  
“Of course not. Can I finish, or are you going to suck on my finger again?”

  
Levi dropped his hand and turned to glare at the dentist. Smith had pulled the mask down from his mouth and held up his tools, face absolutely radiant with a delighted grin that pulled his lips too high and exposed his gums and wrinkled his nose.

  
Levi pointed at him. “Fuck you.”

  
Smith raised a brow and his grin, somehow, pulled wider. “Oh?”

  
“Don’t. I will bite you.”

  
Armin shuddered, still facing the wall.

 

 

Levi and Armin, that unfortunate little assistant, barely survived the rest of the appointment with Levi oscillating between confused arousal and genuine discomfort at the locale, and Armin looking like he wanted to rewind his life by about an hour and beg that shitty bespectacled dentist to take him instead.

  
Smith finally finished, stripping off his gloves and mask. He stood and patted at his lab coat, fishing a pen and business card from his breast pocket. The assistant scrambled out the door while he could without so much as a goodbye, ears still pink.

  
“Levi,” Smith began.

  
Levi rubbed his sweaty palms against his jeans, swinging his legs over the examination chair to stand. It didn’t make much of a difference, but he felt marginally better as he glared up at the dentist with his feet planted on the linoleum, resigned for more teasing. “What?”

  
The dentist wasn’t looking at him, though. He was scrawling something on the business card, brow crinkled in concentration. When he finished, he leveled an electric gaze down at Levi and handed over his card.

  
“It was a pleasure to meet you,” he said, voice vibrating with what Levi was coming to understand as repressed laughter.

  
Levi rolled his eyes. “You’re not as funny as you think you are, asshole.” But he took the card, pocketing it. He made sure his lips were pressed into a decidedly unamused line, though the corners felt too tense. He refused to grin back at the dentist.

  
The dentist shrugged and held out his hand for Levi to shake. Levi paused, eyeing the broad palm. Foreign hands, foreign germs. Smith waited patiently, the long lines of his body relaxed. His fingers were warm, Levi recalled, firm and steady and gentle. So he extended his own hand and fitted it into the dentist’s. The smile Smith gave him as he curled his fingers around Levi’s seemed as full and wide as the universe.

 

 

 

Levi took the card out of his pocket that night when he stripped his jeans off in the bathroom, waiting for the shower to heat. There was a cellphone number scrawled on the back, and a name. _Erwin Smith_. Levi rolled his eyes.

  
Exactly three days later, after some studiously ignored deliberation, Levi sent a text. _Hey, asshole_. He pretended he didn’t send it, pretended his palms weren’t clammy, and put his phone back in his pocket.

  
_Levi_ , came the response a few minutes later, and Levi tried not to hear the warmth in the greeting. _How’s the oral fixation going?_

  
Levi allowed himself to grin as he sent back, _You know what, fuck you, Erwin Smith. This isn’t Levi_.

  
_Oh, my apologies. I’d been waiting to hear from someone. He’s short and bitter, with an absolutely killer mouth. Do you know anyone like this? I wanted to ask him out to coffee._

  
_You’re not half as charming as you think you are, Smith._

  
_I'm wounded. Soothe my crushed ego over coffee?_

  
_I prefer tea._  Levi could picture those sharp blue eyes lighting up as Smith realized the capitulation.  His fingers shook slightly.

  
_Is that so... I was wondering, shall I wear latex gloves when we get tea? Or was that a coincidence?_

 

 _Fuck you._  Levi paused, raised his eyes to the ceiling and said another futile prayer.  _It wasn't a coincidence._

 

 


End file.
